David Brakke

David Brakke is the Joe R. Engle Chair in the History of Christianity and Professor of History. Professor Brakke studies and teaches the history and literature of ancient Christianity from its origins through the fifth century, with special interests in asceticism, monasticism, "Gnosticism," biblical interpretation, and Egyptian Christianity.

His research has received support from the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

His current projects include a study of early Christian scriptural practices before and after the listing of a New Testament canon and a new translation, with commentary, of the Secret Book of James from Nag Hammadi Codex I.

He received the B.A. in English from the University of Virginia (1983), M.Div. from Harvard University (1986), and Ph.D. in religious studies from Yale University (1992). Before coming to OSU in 2012, he taught for nineteen years in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University, where he was department chair from 2006 to 2011.